TX 769 

=" . MRS. FARMER’S 

Champion Health 
Cereal Blend 

Bread Book 



Ml 








THE ORIGINAL RECIPES 
OF A 

PRACTICAL COOK 



(Copyriflhted; 











Foreword 


This little booklet is published at the request of 
those who have been using my “Champion Health Cereal 
Blend, the formula for making which I called in some 
time ago, for two chief reasons. First, where coarse 
breads are being used for dietetic purposes it is of utmost 
importance that the physician prescribing them knows 
exactly what they contain, and how they are made up. 
Second, it is cheaper to blend the cereals at home, and 
assures one of proper proportions and materials. 

These recipes contain some new ideas in bread making 
for those who know how to make bread, will be of val¬ 
uable assistance to those w'ho are learning, and the book 
on the whole will be especially appreciated by the mem¬ 
bers of “The Mothers Want to Know Why” Club. 

Respectfully, 

LILLIAN VAN ORNUM FARMER, 

* 

> t , 

No. 312 Harvard Avenue North,. 

> J > 

•t* 

Nov. 12, 1915. Seattle, Washington. 



ROYAL PRINTING & STAMP CO., 228 MADISON ST. 











©CIA*) ! 0? I 3 







DEC -t> 1915 

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Scientific Bread 


There is no word in the English language today that 
is more misunderstood, overworked, misapplied or imposed 
upon than the word “Scientific.” This is lamentably true 
where it is used often times to qualify foods. 

Anyone who has anything to trade, barter or sell in 
the way of food, or anything else for that matter, will find 
it greatly to his advantage if he can tack the word “Scien¬ 
tific” to it, and he generally does. 

It is the worm he baits his hook with in fishing for 
business, and we poor fish swallow it hook, line and tackle, 
without question. Such is the homage we pay to science in 
this truly scientific age. 

The word “Science,” savs the dictionary “in its broad- 
est sense, means knowledge and learning. In a more 
restricted sense it has come to be differentiated from all 
other branches of accurate knowledge, as pertaining to 
natural phenomena and the relations between them.” 

Scientific foods are natural foods in nature’s own com¬ 
binations; and natural foods are chiefly grains, fruits, vege¬ 
tables, milk, eggs and the flesh of certain animals. There is 
nothing that the mind or ingenuity of man can conceive or 
concoct that will ever “out science” nature in the production 
of food for man or beast. The chemist may reduce a food 
to its elements, determining just how much proteid, carbo¬ 
hydrate, fat, mineral matter and water it contains, but he 
cannot reassemble those elements whole, or in part, in a 
food that will equal that of original, natural form. 

Disorganized foods will fail their purpose as foods, 
just as the disorganized phosphates, nitrates, laxatives, etc., 
of the chemist’s laboratory have failed theirs as medicines. 
Physicians the world over are recognizing the therapy of 
foods in the treatment of disease, prescribing nature’s own 
remedies, as nature seems to have ordained, in the food we 
eat. Mother nature is bountiful and prolific in providing 
food for her children, and simple, ordinary, untampercd 
with, natural foods are not only the most scientific “health” 
foods, but are also the cheapest foods the world over. The 
“Science of Common Sense” will help us to see how in the 


matter of “health foods” we “strain at a gnat and swallow 
a camel.” 

There is no animal in a natural state that will habitu¬ 
ally feed upon a thing not intended by nature for its use. 
and a wonderful instinct which rarely fails it, tells it what 
to select for its particular needs. Man alone gorges him¬ 
self on things he knows not of, prepared in ways he cares 
not of, as long as it pleases his sight, his taste and his appe¬ 
tite. If he had the same blind confidence in all humanity 

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that he has in his grocer, his butcher or his cook, there 
would be no need of laws or religions, and this world would 
be an ideal place to live in. In his business dealings he 
requires iron-bound contracts; he would not think of taking 
his banker’s word for it that a roll of bills contained a 
stated sum, until he had counted it over in his presence; 
but he will stop at a grocers and buy a package of some¬ 
body’s “scientific” “near-food” on the grocer’s assurance 
that it is a “wonderful seller” and the most widely adver¬ 
tised food of its kind, take it home, turn it over to some 
Bridget or Gretchen, Sambo or Ah Sing cook, to be served 
up to him, and he eats it without giving a thought as to its 
fitness for human food. We give little heed to what we eat 
in times of health and prosperity, as long as we have what 
pleases' us. It is only when sickness or adversity overtakes 
us that we give our food any intelligent or serious thought, 
from a physiological or economic standpoint. 

In .the wake of dietetic enlightenment have followed 
scores of alleged “health” foods and fads. By far the most 
important of these are the so-called health breads, since 
bread, in a broad sense, forms the basis of human nutrition 
among .all civilized nations. 

The art of bread-making is very ancient. Historians 
date its origin as far back as the stone age. when),primitive 
man was said to have crushed the seeds of grasses between 
hard surfaces, and mixing the resultant meal with water, 
formed it into rude cakes, which were baked upon hot stones 
or in the ashes. 

Bread is undoubtedly the first prepared food of man 
and probably marks the beginning of the evolution of the 
human race from the beast-like raw meat eating stage of 
existence. 


Be-that-as-it-may, bread-making was known to the 
early Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks and other nations. The 
Egyptians are known to have carried the art to high per¬ 
fection, and white bread was eaten; by the rich. They were 
the first to cultivate grains for food, barley being of most 
primitive culture. 

From the coarse, unleavened cakes of primitive man, 
bread has evoluted into the white, fine-grained loaf of 
today. 

It has evoluted from a point of appearance, lightness 
and whiteness, but has degenerated from a point of nutri¬ 
tion. The modern miller, in making white Hour, rejects some 
of the vital constituents of the wheat. With the germ, pro- 
teid and fat are lost, and the valuable mineral matter and 
some proteid are discarded with the bran. An authority 
states that white bread cannot be regarded as a perfect 
food since the proportion of proteid to carbohydrate is 
too low. 

Where bread forms the staple article of food, as it 
does in many households, this lack of proteid is a serious 
drawback. Where the proteid is supplied in meat, eggs, 
milk, cheese or other foods white bread is not objection¬ 
able, and perhaps is to be preferred with an ordinary 
mixed diet. 

A truly scientific “staff of life” bread is a bread that 
shall contain all of the food constituents of the grains from 
which it is made. 

Wheat and corn are tw r o of a few natural foods that 
contain within themselves all the elements required for 
bodily needs. 

Coarse bread, properly made, is one of the most health¬ 
ful and nutritious, as well as one of the cheapest of foods. 
Where so-called “health” breads have failed as such, I 
think it can be demonstrated beyond a question of doubt, it 
has been chiefly due to the fact that they were not made up 
properly, and only out of coarse flour and cereals. 

Some white flour is necessary in order to make a per¬ 
fect bread from a dietetic standpoint. Dough made up 
entirely of whole-meal flours lacks consistency or “tight¬ 
ness,” and most of the gas generated by the action of the 


yeast or other leaven escapes, leaving a heavy, soggy, indi¬ 
gestible loaf. There is a popular fallacy that all “health" 

breads worthv of the name must be very dark in color. The 
• • 

public demands it, and the accommodating baker darkens his 
bread with cheap, black molasses, burnt sugar or other color¬ 
ing matter. To rye bread dough he adds, if he is not over 
scrupulous, powdered charcoal, to give it the desired black 
appearance. A baker once assured me that very little rye 
flour need be used by this method of imitating its color. 
The practice of artificially coloring breads is so common, I 
doubt if the average bakery is aware that it detracts greatly 
from the wholesomeness and digestibility of the bread; 
bread made from whole meal flours, with the exception of 
rye, is comparatively light in color. Since public bakeries 
were first introduced, laws have been enacted to prevent 
adulteration, and the use of alum, sulphate of copper, lime 
and other “improvers” in bread. A writer says that in 
Austria in the seventeenth century, bakers who failed to 
comply with regulations respecting the sale of bread, were 
liable to fine and imprisonment, and even corporal pun¬ 
ishment. 

That in Constantinople in the eighteenth century it 
was usual to hang a baker or two, when bread went to fam¬ 
ine prices. That in Turkey and Egypt the baker who sold 
light weight or adulterated bread was barbarously pun¬ 
ished by being nailed by the ear to the door-post of his 
shop. 

The modern baker has little to fear from too rigid an 
inquiry, as to what goes into his bread in the making. 

“Trade secrets” are respected these days, and he is 
only asked to conform to certain regulations regarding sani¬ 
tation. It would not be fair to imply that all bakers are 
dishonest and use dangerous adulterants, but that many of 
them do is admitted bv the better class of bread dealers. 

It is not possible for everybody to have home made 
bread, and those who eat baker’s bread would do well to 
inform themselves that it does not contain substances injuri¬ 
ous to health. Alum, or its substitutes, when added to the 
dough, act as a brace or steadier to unstable gluten, says 
one authority. By retarding the degradation of the gluten, 
it checks diastasic action, and the proportion of starch con- 


verted into grape sugar is reduced, with the result that a 
whiter, more porous, loaf is produced. By its use, good 
looking bread may be baked from flour which otherwise 
could hardly be made into bread at all. It also increases 
the water retaining power of the dough, and enables dis¬ 
honest, unscrupulous bakers to sell a loaf at a required 
weight, at a greater profit. 

Bread thus treated is admittedly unwholesome and 

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indigestible. Baker’s bread at best, however, is a poor sub¬ 
stitute for good home-made bread. 

It is invariably over-fermented, and necessarily so. In 
raising dough in hundreds of pound lots, a very strong and 
active ferment must be used in order to get it into^ the oven 
in a specified time. The average baker does not cook his 
bread as thoroughly done as does the housewife, for by so 
doing he reduces the weight of his loaf by evaporating too 
much moisture. Underdone bread, in which all of the yeast 
cells have not been killed, becomes a menace to digestion, as 
the cells go on reproducing in the stomach, causing “heart 
burn,” gas, bloat, etc. These are a few of the reasons why 
physicians invariably warn mothers against feeding baker’s 
bread to young children, and unless it is thoroughly toasted 
it is absolutely unsafe to be given them. A prominent physi¬ 
cian is quoted as saying that nine-tenths of the ills flesh is 
heir to are caused directly or indirectly by indigestion. 

This may or may not be true, but I think it is not an 
exaggeration to say that nine-tenths of the cases of indi¬ 
gestion are caused primarily by improperly made, under¬ 
done, or over-fermented bread. Bread is the one common 
food of rich and poor alike, a food that most of us eat 
three times a day, every day in the year. If there is any¬ 
thing dietetically wrong with it, it can readily be seen how 
great a menace to health it may become. The “health” 
breads of the present time are a modification of the bread 
of primitive man. By adding the coarser flours and cereals 
to white flour, we restore the nutrition of the grain in full, 
and bv introducing yeast plants into the dough, the bread 
is made light, and more easily digested. It is the problem 
of nations today to evolve a bread that shall be a compjlete 
food in itself. This it is possible to do with the possible 
exception of fat. This may be added to the dough in the 


shape of lard or other shortening. Since bread is usually 
eaten with butter, the deficiency is perhaps best supplied in 
this way. 

It is a deplorable fact that the average miller, as well 
as baker, is very apt to regard “health” breads as a fake 
or a fad. The poorest grades of grain, blighted, aborted or 
damaged wheat, that cannot be utilized in making white 
flour, are often turned into “health-food” materials. This 
may help to explain why many “scientific” health foods and 
breads fail their purpose. 

Domestic Science study is revolutionizing things culi¬ 
nary in many households throughout the land. Housewives 
are awakening to the fact that they have shifted the respon¬ 
sibility of their kitchens all too long, and in most part to 
the most ignorant, incompetent classes of all nations. The 
housewife of the future will not be the “easy mark” for 
unscrupulous tradesmen the housewife of the past has been. 
She is not only learning what foods are best for her family, 
and how r to select and prepare these foods, but is also being 
taught how to make her own chemical tests for injurious 
adulterants. 

One cannot help but suspect that many of our mothers 
and grandmothers w r ere more scientific in the feeding of 
their families than w r e modern mothers have been. They 
could not have been all wrong, as some w r ould have us 
believe, or they could not have raised the large, healthy 
families many of them did. True, they knew nothing about 
“calories” or of the particular need of proteid, carbohy¬ 
drates or fat in food, but they fed their children on simple, 
natural foods, prepared in most part, in simple, wdiolesome 
ways, and they baked, their own bread. 



General Directions in Bread Making 


I am often asked how to make bread out of our 
local Western flour. I use it altogether, preferring it 
for the following reasons: It is conceded to have more 
flavor than flour made from hard wheat, and makes excel¬ 
lent bread, requiring less yeast, and is less trouble to 
make. It is cheaper, and answers all purposes, doing 
away with the necessity of keeping a special pastry flour 
on hand. It cannot be excelled as a foundation for 
coarse breads, and most any brand of our local soft wheat 
flour will be found to work well with the recipes given 
here. When hard wheat flour is used, the best results 
will be obtained, perhaps, bv using a little more yeast and 
setting the bread by the batter sponge method, using less 
flour in the final mixing, making into a softer dough, as 
hard wheat flour absorbs more water than soft wheat flour. 

This leads many to believe hard wheat flour goes 
further, but the additional yield of loaves is due to water, 
not bread weight. 

In botany we learn that yeast is a cellular plant, 
and that planting consists of placing under favorable con¬ 
ditions for growth. The kind, character and quantity of 
veast used is of utmost importance in the making of 
good bread. Where too much or too strong a yeast is 
used, the bread is apt to be more of a scientific success 
from a botanical, than from a gastronomic standpoint. 

Old-fashioned potato yeast is the best for making 
sweet, wholesome bread, but it should be made fresh for 
each baking in the summer, and not renewed more than 
two or three times in winter. 

The habit of keeping a starter from time to time is 
not advisable, as bacteria develop, causing a sour, ill¬ 
smelling bread sooner or later. 

Compressed yeast is stronger and more active than 
potato yeast, and if not absolutely fresh will make a 
sour, over-fermented bread, about half the quantity ordi¬ 
nary compressed yeast recipes call for can be used with 


better results as far as the digestibility of the bread 
is concerned. A recipe frequently given for making a 
“quick method” bread, calls for two compressed vcast 
cakes to a quart of water. 

A quart of water makes about four pounds of bread, 
and two yeast cakes will make sixteen or twenty pounds 
of good bread. 

Quick method breads are not to be advised as n 
regular thing, but may be made occasionally for sake 
of convenience. 

Bread is sweeter and more wholesome set at night 
with less yeast and given from nine to twelve hours to 
mature. It is also less work than day bread, being ready 
to work down in the morning and put in pans, and may 
be baked off while one is washing up the bread fast dishes. 

A maple-wood or heavy crockery bowl is best to set 
bread in, as they retain heat better than graniteware or 
tin receptacles. The bread bowl should never be set in 
warm water to hasten the action of the yeast. The heat 
is unevenly distributed around the dough and it is prac¬ 
tically impossible to keep the water at an even temperat¬ 
ure. Forced bread is never very satisfactory from any 

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point of view. Nor should bread dough be closely 
wrapped in heavy cloths or paper, as the gases gener¬ 
ated by the action of the yeast are closely confined in the 
bowl, resulting often times, in a sour-tasting, bad-smelling 
bread. 

It is best to leave a vent between the covering of 
the dough and the bowl that contains it. Care should be 
taken that the dough does not become overheated while 
raising. The fear of its being chilled prompts many 
amateur cooks to set it on the warming oven of the range 
or on a steam radiator. I find more bread is spoiled by 
being kept too hot than is spoiled by being chilled. 
Chilled dough can be brought to life if set in a moder¬ 
ately warm place out of drafts, if the yeast in it was 
vigorous at the beginning, but once that it is overheated 
or scalded by being set in too hot water, it will be a 
flat failure. Atmospheric conditions affect the raising of 
bread. On a wet or foggy day when the air is filled 


with moisture the dough will be slower in raising. Much 
steam escaping in the kitchen from boiling clothes or 
water will tend to delay its “coming up” also. 

Strictly health-breads should never contain molasses or 
brown sugar. These additions not only aggravate kidney 
troubles, but are said to cause them, if eaten regularly. 

“Slack” dough breads are not advisable, as they are 
invariably heavy and soggy. Enough white or fine whole 
wheat flour should be added to give consistency to the mass, 
that the bread may be light and more easily digested. 
Bread baked in round tins is better than bread baked in 
square or oblong tins, as the heat is more evenly distributed 
around the loaf. 

It is to be remembered that a recipe is only a guide, 
and many of the minor details upon which the full success 
of the bread depends must be worked out by practice and 
experience. 

Potato Yeast 

Wash a medium sized potato, and grate raw T , skin and 
all. Add two tablespoons of sugar. Have boiling water 
ready and pour over at once sufficient water to make about 
the consistency of thin starch. Cook for several minutes, 
stirring constantly to keep from burning. When cooled to 
luke-warm, add a dissolved dry yeast cake and set in a 
moderately w T arm place to raise. It will be ready for use 
when the potato raises to the top, which will be in about 
eight or ten hours. 

Another good w r av to make yeast is to boil and mash 
a good sized potato in a quart of water; add two table¬ 
spoons of sugar. When cooled to luke warm, stir in the 
dissolved dry yeast cake, and let raise as irv first recipe. 

Formula for making “Mrs. Farmer’s Champion Health 
Cereal Blend’ ’is as follows: 

10 lhs. Graham Flour 
3 lbs. Cracked Wheat 
2 lbs. Cornmeal (yellow preferred) 

1 lb. Hominy Grits 
1 Package Sterilized Bran. 


Put all the cereals in a large vessel and thoroughly 
mix together with the hands. It is then ready for use. This 
formula makes eighteen pounds, of cereal blend, and may 
be blended in half portions if one does notic&re to have so 
much on hand at once. Cracked wheat and hominy grits 
may be bought in bulk at most any grocers in the exact 
quantity needed. 

To make the bread, thoroughly scald mixing bowl and 
put in 8 pints of luke-warm water 

% CU P of sugar 

1 tablespoon salt 

1- tablespoons olive or vegetable oil or 2 rounded 
tablespoons butter, lard or other shortening 

2 cups of potato yeast or 

1 cake of compressed yeast dissolved in 2 cups 
of warm water. 

Stir in four cupfuls of the Champion Health Cereal 
Blend and add sufficient white Hour to make a batter the 
consistency of muffin dough. Beat hard for several minutes, 
then add enough white Hour to make into a fairly firm loaf. 
Grease over, and let raise over night. In the morning work 
down and let raise again. When light, form into pound and 
a half loaves, which may be let raise to double the bulk, 
and bake in a moderate oven an hour to an hour and a 
quarter. 

Rolls made from this dough are excellent and should 
be rolled thin, not more than a quarter of an inch thick. 
Cut out as ordinarv biscuits and bake in muffin tins or cut 

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in oblong lengths, three or four inches long by an inch 
wide and bake when light, from twenty-five to thirty-five 
minutes. 


Health Bread No. 2 

Use the above recipe, substituting finely ground whole 
wheat flour for white flour if an entire coarse-meal bread 
is desired, using a little more yeast. An extra cup of 
potato yeast or % of a/ cake more of compressed yeast. 


Hard Tack 


An ideal hard-taek or “war” bread may be made as 
follows: 

1 quart of luke-warm water 

1 cup potato yeast or 

1 compressed yeast cake dissolved in 1 cup of 

water 

2 rounded tablespoons of butter or lard 

1 level tablespoon of salt 

V 2 CU P °f sugar. 

Scald mixing bowl, put in water and other ingredients, 
and stir in 2 cups of the Champion Health Cereal Blend. 
Finish with whole wheat flour, kneading into a very stiff 
loaf. Grease over and let stand over night. Work down 
once in the morning and when raised the second time, roll 
out as for cookies. Cut into square or round crackers and 
prick over the tops of each with a silver fork. Put into 
dripping pans and let stand in a moderately warm place 
for an hour. Bake a golden brown. It requires from 
twenty to thirty minutes to cook them thoroughly. Use no 
grease on the crackers or the pans they are baked in. They 
will keep indefinitely if thoroughly dried out after baking 
and packed away in jars. Should be kept in a dry place. 
They are especially good for children, as they compel thor¬ 
ough mastication and are rich in nutrition, as well as min¬ 
eral salts, so necessary for teeth and bone development. 

The Champion Health Cereal Blend makes excellent 
breakfast porridge. It should be mixed with cold water 
before adding boiling water and cooked from two to three 
hours. It can be cooked at night in a double-boiler, or in a 
fireless cooker, for the next morning. 

It is excellent for Boston Brown Bread, steamed fruit 
puddings, etc. 

“Poor Han's Bread ” 

A Good “War” Bread 

Five cups luke-warm water; 3 cups potato yeast or 
1 t/, cakes of compressed yeast dissolved in three cups warm 
water; % cup of sugar; 1 rounded tablespoon salt; 2 


rounded tablespoons lard or butter; 3 cups corn meal; 1 cup 
of cracked wheat; 2 cups of graham flour; white flour to fin¬ 
ish kneading into firm dough. Set over night, and bake as 
directed in Health Bread recipe. 

White Bread 

Five cups of luke-warm water in which a small sized 
potato has been boiled or mashed; 1V 2 cups potato yeast 
or 1 compressed yeast cake, dissolved in 1 cup warm 
water; l- tablespoons sugar; 1 level tablespoon salt; 1 
rounded tablespoon lard or butter, or four tablespoons olive 
or vegetable oil; I /2 cup cream of wheat, farina, wheat 
hearts or white corn meal. 

Thoroughly scald mixing bowl. Put the 1/2 CU P 
cereal in the bowl and pour over it 2 cups of the potato 
water, which has been brought to the boiling point. Add 
the rest of the w\ater and other ingredients, being sure the 
mixture is cooled to hike warm before adding the yeast. 
Sift in flour and beat hard for a few minutes with a per¬ 
forated spoon while it is in the batter stage. Make up at 
once into a firm loaf, grease over and let set over night. 
Work down once in the morning, and when light shape 
into loaves which should be put intoi a moderate oven whfen 
a little less than double in bulk and bake from fortv-fivV 

v * 

minutes to an hour. 

Make parkerhouse or finger rolls out of this dough, or 
bake biscuits in muffin pans and you will be pleased with 
the result. 

White Health Bread 

Use the white bread recipe, adding a cup of cracked 
wheat and a cup of the farina, or the other cereals named. 

The same white bread recipe, may be used for Graham 
or whole-wheat bread, using a third of the graham flour to 
two-thirds white. 

Two-thirds whole wheat flour to one-third white. \ 
cup of bran may be added to either of these breads with 
pleasing results. Bran, however, should never predominate 
in bread. It is valuable chiefly for the mineral salts it 
contains and for supplying waste, but too much bran is apt 
to act as an irritant to delicate stomachs. 


Baking Potfder Biscuits 

Sift two cups of flour into the mixing bowl. Cut in a 
rounded tablespoon of butter or lard; add a level teaspoon 
of salt and sift in last, two rounded teaspoons of baking 
powder. Add sufficient milk to make a soft dough that can 
be handled without trouble. 

Roll out a little less than half an inch in thickness, 
cut into small biscuits, wet the top of each with milk and 
bake at once in a fairly quick oven, from ten to fifteen 
minutes. 

Corn Meal Muffins 

Stir one and one one-half cups of corn meal into twp 
cups of milk and let stand for an hour or two. Melt a 
rounded tablespoon of lard or butter in half a cup of boil¬ 
ing w T ater in which a scant teaspoon of baking soda has 
been dissolved. Add two well-beaten eggs to the corn meal, 
then the melted lard, and three tablespoons of sugar. Stir 
in white flour until a batter a little thicker than cake dough 
is obtained, beat hard for several minutes, then sift in three 
rounded teaspoons of baking powder. Pour into muffin 
tins, or it may be baked in a dripping pan. Bake in a 
moderate oven from twenty minutes to half an hour. 

Graham and Whole Wheat Muffins 

May be made after the above recipe, us : ng two-tliirdis 
whole wheat flour to one-third white; from a third to a half 
graham flour to white, and they may be made up at once 
without standing. One-half cup of bran may be added if 
desired. 

The eggs may be omitted for sake of economy, and 
half milk and half water, or all water used. When all 
water is used, an extra spoon of sugar may be added and 
a little more shortening. 

If molasses is desired as a flavoring for breads, none 
but the best brands should be considered, and about half 
the quantity used, the ordinary recipe calls for. A little 
baking soda should be added to neutralize the acid in the 
molasses before adding it to the bread. 








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